


Sworn To Protect

by TrishaCollins



Series: Babysitting And Other Royal Duties [17]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Cor ALWAYS knows where the kids are, Gen, He is very good, Underaged Drinking is a bad idea, it freaks them out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-14 13:14:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18053159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrishaCollins/pseuds/TrishaCollins
Summary: A fifteen year old Gladio makes some bad life choices, Cor finds him.





	Sworn To Protect

He idled the car, watching the building and the kids gathered on the play structure in front of it. It he still smoked - Prompto and then Morris after him had effectively broken of the habit - he probably would have lit one up. But the kids on the play equipment were smoking enough for a dozen soldiers.

Gladio broke away after about twenty minutes, walking over to the car. He only seemed a little startled, mostly embarrassed. "Did my dad send you?"

He reached overwhelmed to the passenger side, popping the door open. "I was in the area. Get in."

"Why?" 

He raised an eyebrow.

Gladio got in, stinking of booze and cigarettes.

"You steal that from Clarus?"

Gladio flushed. "I'm not stupid."

"Yeah. Sure." He rolled his eyes, putting the car into drive. "Real genius. How high are you?"

Gladio shrugged. 

He rolled his eyes, taking them back towards the the royal residence.

"Like you and dad never did anything when you were my age." Gladio muttered.

"When I was fifteen, I was fighting a war." He deadpanned.

"You and dad always do that! Us kids have got it too easy, too soft. The war is over, we get it! Cool. No glory for us. We can't all be as perfect as Cor the Immortal."

He only slurred the words a little, at least he was holding his drink decently. Nothing worse than a sloppy drunk. "One, I have never complained about you, Prince Noctis, that fussy advisor of his, or my boys being soft and coddled. The nifs are dealing with their own shit right now, probably will be for another decade or two. That doesn't mean you might not have to deal with it later." He glanced at the kid - still a kid, even if he was old enough to know better, old enough that he had been training. "Two, there is a big difference between finding trouble and going out and looking for it. I know you know better."

Gladio crossed his arms, glaring out the window.

"A quick drink and a few words to the wrong people and you can end up in a whole lot of trouble. Both for yourself and your family."

"I don't fucking care. Fuck my family. Fuck my dad. I didn't ask for any of this shit."

Drunk, angry, and a kid. Untested and untried.

He had fought his way to this position, Gladio, like Noctis, had been placed in it by the pure chance of birth. A roll of the dice on fate's table.

"You and dad...Cid...you just...you're just watching him die and you're not doing anything." Gladio slurred, leaning more heavily on the door. "How'my'i meant to do that? Just watch Noctis age five times faster than anyone else? Dad keeps saying my job is to protect him. How can I just let him throw his life away? The wars quiet right now, but..."

He grimaced. "We'll hope it won't come to that in his lifetime." Without the wall, it was easier. He knew Regis walked easier and didn't have as many health problems. "It is quite possible that Noctis will not have to call on the power of the crystal outside of letting the Glaive in."

"Sure. It's possible. But he could have to call up the wall, and I'll bury a king before he's forty."

He sighed. "Gladio, if we spend all our time worrying about the maybes and the coulds of the world, we'll all make ourselves crazy. Noctis right now is young. He's barely twelve and you're already planning his funeral? King Regis still has a number of years left on the throne." He said, patient. Clarus must have told him about the crystal.

Gladio nodded, looking miserable, and then wrenched the door open to vomit out the side of his car.

"If you get that on my car, you're cleaning it off."

His teen-aged passenger groaned softly in response.

Clarus owed him. And if Gladio got any of the younger kids sneaking off, he might hamstring the kid for a few days. But he got it.

Knowing the fate of the kings they protected was hard. Just the thought of giving one of his boys over to it made his stomach clinch.

But there wasn't any other way, and he wouldn't step away from guarding his king. No matter what the cost.


End file.
